Can't figure why this didn't get way higher ratings ..
You have to love an SF that explains it at the end (no spoiler!)
You go to bed thinking, I knew that! I guessed it 20 mins before ..
ozzymex was right about the little girls (future lawyers)
But I was totally sold on Pena, he be a major Oscar in future
Versatile too, remember the locksmith in Crash?
I bet he wisht he had that Extinction weapon then, oo just kiddn!
Wish this movie all future success!
Reviews
7 Reviews
A Gun to the Head
(2009)
Bone-chilling Film Noire Thriller Black Humour Slapstick Sleeper (spoilers?)
15 June 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Wow, don't let anyone fool you into thinking this is comedy, my guts were in a knot with tension all the way through, it is brilliant satire of the complex world of petty crime on a par with those British shows Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, even better. Yes it did make you laugh, but only in a bleak sort of way, like gallows humour. Wow, it was brilliant, and the cast of young actors all fit their roles like they had been written for them; the main character Trevor in particular is totally convincing as the cool protagonist, he strolls through this sinister convoluted plot with all the professional aplomb of a modern day Daniel Craig.
It all starts innocently enough; he leaves the foursome dinner party hosted by his wife to get some wine and immediately becomes embroiled in a wonderfully bizarre drug-dealing pursuit that criss-crosses the city, falling in and out of scenarios that become alternatively sinister and hilarious, right up to the unexpected denouement, a climax of random outcome that is so typical of real life, and so reminiscent of great cinema verite.
OK, OK, by total coincidence I happen to have lived most of my adult life here in Vancouver where the film was shot, but I had nothing, nothing at all to do with this movie, honest. I did however find it overwhelming to enjoy a romp through my beloved hometown without having it pretend that it was someplace else (which it mostly does) and it allowed me to truly feel the familiar funkiness of Vancouver, the wonderful old houses and the casual interaction of the wonderfully whacky people that I know and love so well.
This having been said, druggies and psychos are not actually that common in this fair city, though they abounded in the movie (I did say spoilers, right?) and the two other Notable Mentions to watch for were the lascivious houseguest Dwayne obsessed with group sex, and the spooky gangster moll Karen who wanted to be intimately involved with the murder victims, both turned in astoundingly convincing performances. All three are BC born, somebody sure started something with this Hollywood North, hey?
It all starts innocently enough; he leaves the foursome dinner party hosted by his wife to get some wine and immediately becomes embroiled in a wonderfully bizarre drug-dealing pursuit that criss-crosses the city, falling in and out of scenarios that become alternatively sinister and hilarious, right up to the unexpected denouement, a climax of random outcome that is so typical of real life, and so reminiscent of great cinema verite.
OK, OK, by total coincidence I happen to have lived most of my adult life here in Vancouver where the film was shot, but I had nothing, nothing at all to do with this movie, honest. I did however find it overwhelming to enjoy a romp through my beloved hometown without having it pretend that it was someplace else (which it mostly does) and it allowed me to truly feel the familiar funkiness of Vancouver, the wonderful old houses and the casual interaction of the wonderfully whacky people that I know and love so well.
This having been said, druggies and psychos are not actually that common in this fair city, though they abounded in the movie (I did say spoilers, right?) and the two other Notable Mentions to watch for were the lascivious houseguest Dwayne obsessed with group sex, and the spooky gangster moll Karen who wanted to be intimately involved with the murder victims, both turned in astoundingly convincing performances. All three are BC born, somebody sure started something with this Hollywood North, hey?
Into the Storm
(2009 TV Movie)
Brilliant sequel to the Gathering Storm (spoilers?)
31 May 2009
I am finally relieved of the long wait: the Gathering Storm left me strangely unfulfilled, ending as it did with the outbreak of WW2. Now Thaddeus Sullivan's Into the Storm carries us forward into that mammoth conflict with a splendid sensitive portrayal of the enigmatic Churchill.
Hats off to Brendan Gleeson, I would never have thought an Irish actor could take over from my hero Albert Finney with such consummate ease, but I guess Brendan owns the role of Winston now, he truly WAS him! (Then again, what do I know, I thought Len Cariou played Roosevelt with a British accent,imagine my surprise to find he's a Winnipeger who lived a long time with Glen Close!)
But Gleeson really was brilliant: His tribute to the disfigured pilot,are you humble in my presence,how humble do you think I am in yours? Drops his towel in front of Roosevelt, you see I have nothing to conceal from you ha ha! On religion: whether you believe or disbelieve,it's a wicked thing to take away a man's hope.
I loved the throwaway lines: RAF Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris being stopped for speeding, and the copper saying you might have killed somebody, and Harris replying My dear fellow, I kill thousands of people every night!
And Winnie's relationship with King George who was worried by Churchill's plans to land on DDay: I have decided to go in with the forward landing craft, I'm sorry your Majesty that would be impossible.. Why not Winston, at least I have a replacement.
Come to think of it, there's no spoilers here, this is simply a trailer.. don't miss the show!
Hats off to Brendan Gleeson, I would never have thought an Irish actor could take over from my hero Albert Finney with such consummate ease, but I guess Brendan owns the role of Winston now, he truly WAS him! (Then again, what do I know, I thought Len Cariou played Roosevelt with a British accent,imagine my surprise to find he's a Winnipeger who lived a long time with Glen Close!)
But Gleeson really was brilliant: His tribute to the disfigured pilot,are you humble in my presence,how humble do you think I am in yours? Drops his towel in front of Roosevelt, you see I have nothing to conceal from you ha ha! On religion: whether you believe or disbelieve,it's a wicked thing to take away a man's hope.
I loved the throwaway lines: RAF Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris being stopped for speeding, and the copper saying you might have killed somebody, and Harris replying My dear fellow, I kill thousands of people every night!
And Winnie's relationship with King George who was worried by Churchill's plans to land on DDay: I have decided to go in with the forward landing craft, I'm sorry your Majesty that would be impossible.. Why not Winston, at least I have a replacement.
Come to think of it, there's no spoilers here, this is simply a trailer.. don't miss the show!
Passchendaele
(2008)
Too much Pash in Passchendaele.
12 November 2008
Warning: Spoilers
(Spoiler for you, spoiled it for me) Why would anyone want to do that? You craft a brilliant impactive epic movie with Private Ryan-like battle scenes fought by WW1 Canadian boys in their period uniforms complete with those flat helmets and antiquated leggings, and the horror of all the mud and blood coming together so effectively and inevitably and then you go and muck it all up with a soppy love story that moves along at snail's pace and is so desperately unconvincing, just like that one a few years ago that blew a hole in James Cameron's epic Titanic.
To be fair, Paul Gross plays a very creditable hero and achieves his goal of creating an iconic battlefield blockbuster for Canadians to be rightly proud of, but his back-up characters left much to be desired. I lost any respect for his girlfriend when she stormed off and left him, immediately accepting that he had betrayed her without giving him any kind of trust or even a hearing. And the brother was even worse: a self-centered whiner who certainly did not deserve to be pursued into battle to make sure he was baby sat. Lastly we could have done without that caricature of the pompous British officer, I know it's popular to bash Brits in historical dramas, but hasn't that stereotype been done to death? Earlier on I had admired the way the the hero dismissed the propaganda about Huns crucifying Allied soldiers on the barn door, and then lo and behold, there is that gratuitous crucifixion scene of the hysterical brother in the German trench and the oddly unbelievable finale. All a bit unnecessary I thought.
The movie merits a good 7, but it would have been a solid 10 with a decent sub-plot.
To be fair, Paul Gross plays a very creditable hero and achieves his goal of creating an iconic battlefield blockbuster for Canadians to be rightly proud of, but his back-up characters left much to be desired. I lost any respect for his girlfriend when she stormed off and left him, immediately accepting that he had betrayed her without giving him any kind of trust or even a hearing. And the brother was even worse: a self-centered whiner who certainly did not deserve to be pursued into battle to make sure he was baby sat. Lastly we could have done without that caricature of the pompous British officer, I know it's popular to bash Brits in historical dramas, but hasn't that stereotype been done to death? Earlier on I had admired the way the the hero dismissed the propaganda about Huns crucifying Allied soldiers on the barn door, and then lo and behold, there is that gratuitous crucifixion scene of the hysterical brother in the German trench and the oddly unbelievable finale. All a bit unnecessary I thought.
The movie merits a good 7, but it would have been a solid 10 with a decent sub-plot.
Buried Treasure
(2001 TV Movie)
redemption? oops, spoiler?
4 January 2008
This is an astonishingly beautiful movie about the love of an old White British Granddad for his young Afro British Granddaughter and what he will do to make sure he keeps her safe. That's all I wanted to say but.. Hey, then you have to ask yourself: How do those Brits craft such splendid stories? I mean listen to those accents! Who could write this stuff? The old boy gets a chance to redeem himself after failing his original daughter, and now he gets a second chance to give it a go. OK never mind about plot spoiler thingies, just look at the wonderful human interaction between these first class actors in what is after all supposed to be nothing more than a humdrum British TV movie. Would that we could all aspire to such drama.
Apocalypto
(2006)
Good rolling yarn, but no masterpiece.
1 January 2007
*Spoilers*
Many commentators seem to be awarding Mel Gibson major points for redeeming himself with a cinematographic tour de force; myself, I set no store by drunken rants, they are all too common these days, let's set them aside and move on.
Judged on it's own merits, Apocalypto is a well-photographed jungle romp with a cast of attractive villagers, whose characters are excellently developed as Garden of Eden innocents, ripe for plundering by decadent Mayans, but once the villagers are rounded up (in a gratuitously blood-spattered raid) and marched off to the local city, we seem to get into a whole string of ancient movie clichés:
The city looks like a old set from Ben-Hur, populated by hundreds of mud-caked people right off the set of Coppola's Appocalyse Now.
The sacrifice scene was straight out of King Solomon's Mine to the point where even I could see the only thing that was going to save our main man was what I hoarsely whispered to my movie-mate ("Eclipse!") and when it came up on cue she squinted at me as if I was some kind of idiot savant.
His escape through the cornfield via the sacrificial death pits was a mixture of Cornel Wilde in The Naked Prey and Haing Ngor in The Killing Fields.
I couldn't believe the leap off the giant waterfall a la Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, neither could the movie buffs I was relating it to later on.
When he finally decides that the jungle is his manor and whacks the main pursuer with the spiked wood trap, his angry mud-caked Rambo was so perfect that I sincerely hoped that seminal actor Stallone got a royalty.
The final scene was a perfect retake of Lord of the Flies, as he was kneeling on the beach awaiting his inevitable execution I almost expected the arriving Europeans to say "Hello boys, playing Cowboys and Indians are we?" which is what I think the naval officer said in the original version.
This particular fugitive was the recipient of the most unlikely good fortune, all the way from lunar celestial intervention, topographical advantage and being in the right place at the right time for conquistadorial intrusion. A major historical sweep this was not. Rather than defining the grand theme of Mayan evolution, Mel's film focuses on a fairly minor sidebar to the unfortunately bloodthirsty aspect of their culture, the sort of detailed approach to which he appears to be somewhat limited. If there's anything really good to come out of this movie, it's the fact that newbie actor Youngblood, despite his emergent career, has managed to star in just about every motion picture show that I have ever seen.
Many commentators seem to be awarding Mel Gibson major points for redeeming himself with a cinematographic tour de force; myself, I set no store by drunken rants, they are all too common these days, let's set them aside and move on.
Judged on it's own merits, Apocalypto is a well-photographed jungle romp with a cast of attractive villagers, whose characters are excellently developed as Garden of Eden innocents, ripe for plundering by decadent Mayans, but once the villagers are rounded up (in a gratuitously blood-spattered raid) and marched off to the local city, we seem to get into a whole string of ancient movie clichés:
The city looks like a old set from Ben-Hur, populated by hundreds of mud-caked people right off the set of Coppola's Appocalyse Now.
The sacrifice scene was straight out of King Solomon's Mine to the point where even I could see the only thing that was going to save our main man was what I hoarsely whispered to my movie-mate ("Eclipse!") and when it came up on cue she squinted at me as if I was some kind of idiot savant.
His escape through the cornfield via the sacrificial death pits was a mixture of Cornel Wilde in The Naked Prey and Haing Ngor in The Killing Fields.
I couldn't believe the leap off the giant waterfall a la Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, neither could the movie buffs I was relating it to later on.
When he finally decides that the jungle is his manor and whacks the main pursuer with the spiked wood trap, his angry mud-caked Rambo was so perfect that I sincerely hoped that seminal actor Stallone got a royalty.
The final scene was a perfect retake of Lord of the Flies, as he was kneeling on the beach awaiting his inevitable execution I almost expected the arriving Europeans to say "Hello boys, playing Cowboys and Indians are we?" which is what I think the naval officer said in the original version.
This particular fugitive was the recipient of the most unlikely good fortune, all the way from lunar celestial intervention, topographical advantage and being in the right place at the right time for conquistadorial intrusion. A major historical sweep this was not. Rather than defining the grand theme of Mayan evolution, Mel's film focuses on a fairly minor sidebar to the unfortunately bloodthirsty aspect of their culture, the sort of detailed approach to which he appears to be somewhat limited. If there's anything really good to come out of this movie, it's the fact that newbie actor Youngblood, despite his emergent career, has managed to star in just about every motion picture show that I have ever seen.
The Last King of Scotland
(2006)
Great Movie - Big Spoilers here!
16 November 2006
Warning: Spoilers
What an incredible movie, Whittaker was indeed Amin Dada, an absolutely total Oscar if he can beat out Helen Mirren in the Queen. What a brave and wonderful leap for an American actor to take to portray this awful African villain. It would have been an unequivocal 10 for me, but for the performance of the absolutely wet Scotty doctor Nicholas Carrigan who didn't convince anyone from the get-go, jumping into the lake in his underpants and dissing his lovely Scottish parents (I will forgive his cavalier pass on Canada) and boinking some poor Ugandan woman on the bus in the opening scene, sliming up to his new and totally saintly doctor boss's wife (wow, played brilliantly by Gillian Anderson, who mercifully turned the little toad down) slithering off into Idi's inner circle, corrupting himself with his sports car and accoutrement's of corrupt power, finally betraying the trust of his gangster boss by rogering the most attractive of his wives (wouldn't you think that would be perhaps the dumbest career decision you could ever make, though you could see it happening for at least forty minutes) good god in heaven, didn't the boy learn any ethics or basic standards of behaviour in Med School, particularly in Scotland. OK, we take off one point for James McAvoy, I am not alone, I sat in the pub after the show and wondered how I was going to tell everyone, until they all said the same.
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